Populating 2nd select box with the value of first select box - php

Question

Currently I have 2 select boxes called Country and City. Now I've made it so that the city data is populated according to the value selected in country using AJAX. To do this I've used the following code:
edit.php:
<select name="country" onchange="getcities($(this).val())" required>
<option value="<?php echo set_value('country'); ?>">Select Country</option>
<?php if($countries) foreach($countries as $country): ?>
<option value="<?php echo $country['id']; ?>" <?php echo ($listing[0]['country'] == $country['id'])?'selected="selected"':''?>><?php echo $country['name']; ?></option>
<?php endforeach; ?>
</select>
<label class="control-labels ">City</label>
<div id="emiratewrap">
<select name="emirate" id="emirate">
<option value="">Select City</option>
</select>
AJAX
$(document).ready(function () {
getcities($('#country').val());
});
function getcities(obj){
console.log(obj);
var dataString = new Object();
dataString.emirate = '<?php echo $property->emirate ?>';
$.ajax({
type: "get",
dataType:"json",
url: "<?php echo site_url('listings/ajaxgetcitiesedit'); ?>/"+obj,
data: dataString,
success: function(e) { $('#emiratewrap').html(e.result);
$bb = "<?php echo $property->status; ?>";
if($bb=="Y") {$("#emiratewrap select").addClass("disabled"); }
}
});
}
Controller:
function ajaxgetcitiesedit($country=''){
$emirate = $this->input->get('emirate');
if(!$country) return false;
$cities = $this->listings_model->get_activepair_cities(array('country_id'=>$country),'*','name asc');
$html = '<select name="emirate" id="emirate" class="form-control select2 required" onchange="oemirate(this);">';
$html .= ($emirate <1)? '<option value="">Select Emirate</option>':'';
foreach($cities as $city):
$html .= '<option value="'.$city['id'].'" '.($city['id'] == $emirate ? 'selected="selected"' : '').'>'.$city['name'].'</option>';
endforeach;
$html .= '<option value="Other">Other</option> </select><input type="text" id="other_emirate" name="other_emirate" class="form-control" style="display: none;" />';
echo json_encode(array('result'=>$html));
}
Now currently I'm working on edit page where it should initially show what value the user had selected while adding the entry. As of now the functionality of the second select works fine as intended as it changes its options when the 1st select data is changed and also gives the correct value in database when update is pressed.
Now the only problem here I have is that initially when loading into the page, it doesn't show anything in the second select box even though there is a value for it in the database. I performed a console.log(obj); in getcities(obj) and initially it returned undefined and everytime I change country, it gives a value in my log.